The present invention relates to the field of electronic communications and more particularly, to the field of providing secure electronic communications over a communications channel. The present invention processes electronically transmitted messages in a manner such that an extremely low probability of unauthorized interception is assured. The present invention has application to the protection of data stored in memory banks of computer systems, such that the data stored therein cannot be intercepted so as to provide information to unauthorized persons. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for maintaining the security of the transmitted message itself rather than merely acting as a port protection device, because the method and apparatus of the present invention prevents unauthorized interception and data reception at any point along the transmission path.
The present invention may be used with a large number of information transmission systems, whether the communications channel is a wire (dedicated as well as standard telephone line), or wireless (radio or microwave and of any modulation technique, for example, AM, FM or phase modulation). The present invention also has application to communications channels wherein fiber optic links provide the transmission medium. The present invention may be used for point to point transmission and also for network transmission, for example, in local and wide area networks.